Improving the distribution of antiretroviral medicines through centralised dispensing: perspectives of HIV+ patients and nurses at a chronic dispensing unit in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Introduction: South Africa's public healthcare facilities are continuously inundated with arduous challenges. A Chronic Dispensing Unit (CDU) can help to alleviate these challenges by reducing the workload of nurses at Primary Health Care clinics, decrease patient waiting time, and enhance accessibility of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV+ patients through the dispensing, packaging, and distribution of chronic medicines to stable patients. Determining the effectiveness of a CDU is therefore critical as it can benefit both the patients and the CDU as a service provider.